Ellen M. Blalock/The Post-StandardBob Klein, village of Camillus machine and equipment operator, picks up recyclables off Maple Road in the village last Wednesday. The village is considering dissolving and letting the town of Camillus take over services.

The village of Camillus — founded in 1852 and home for 1,200 people — could be the first Onondaga County village in 85 years to dissolve.

Camillus Village Mayor Michael Montero said he favors merging the village into the town because the state has adopted a property tax cap that he says leaves villages, such as Camillus, with few options. The village can’t cover its spending without raising taxes more than the cap or without finding other sources of revenue, village officials said.

Other mergers

Seneca Falls: The village will be absorbed into the town of Seneca Falls Jan. 1.

Altmar: Village board will vote Aug. 3 on whether to adopt a dissolution plan to abolish the village on Jan. 1. Residents voted in November 2010 to dissolve the village.

Boylston Town: Board accepted a petition requesting a study into merging with another town.

Whitesboro: Residents in the Oneida County village overwhelmingly voted against dissolving their village.

In Central New York, the village of Seneca Falls, in Seneca County, will merge into its town at the end of the year. Altmar, in Oswego County, will vote in two weeks whether it will dissolve, too.

Villages throughout the state are feeling the pinch.

“If you keep getting all these charges coming in and the only way you’re able to pay those bills is through taxes, you’re going to be forced out of business potentially,” said Minoa Village Mayor Richard J. Donovan, the second vice president of the New York Conference of Mayors, which represents more than 500 cities and villages throughout the state.

Village work forces are so small that it’s difficult to cut jobs to save money, he said. Sometimes cutting a job or two would eliminate an entire department, he said.

“It just comes to a point where your only ability to pay these bills is to raise taxes, and now we have a 2 percent property tax cap with no relief of these unfunded mandates,” he said.

In Camillus, 108 residents signed a petition asking for a public vote on whether the village should dissolve. The petition was submitted to the village clerk July 18. Village board members are expected to discuss a study of a merger with the town at its next meeting, Thursday.

Even if the board decides the village should merge with the town of Camillus, the decision would be up to the residents. They would voice their opinions at public hearings and then vote on whether to dissolve their village.

How it works

Under state law, 10 percent of registered voters or 5,000 registered voters (whichever is less) of a town, village or special district can submit a petition to dissolve a local government. If there are fewer than 500 registered voters, 20 percent need to sign a petition.

The petition would trigger a referendum during which a majority can dissolve the local government.

A study by the Onondaga County comptroller says Camillus village residents would pay less in taxes but see little or no change in services if the village merges with the town.

The study, which is in its draft stage, shows that a village resident with a house assessed at $100,000 would save $77.62 annually, according to Comptroller Robert E. Antonacci.

“When you factor in the risks — future costs, the property tax cap and increased expenditures — the consolidation decision should be presented to the village taxpayers,” Antonacci said.

Other villages in Onondaga County have talked about consolidation, but Camillus is the first village to take the county comptroller up on his offer to have his staff study — at no cost to village taxpayers — what it would mean to dissolve, Antonacci said.

Eastwood was the last village in Onondaga County to dissolve; it merged with Syracuse in 1926, according to Travis Glazier, director of intergovernmental relations for Onondaga County.

Michelle Gabel/The Post-StandardGary Martin, the village of Camillus Department of Public Works supervisor, rebuilds the bottom of a snow plow Monday. The village is considering dissolving and letting the town of Camillus take over services.

Camillus Town Supervisor Mary Ann Coogan said she thinks it makes sense to consolidate the village into the town.

“It (consolidation) wouldn’t really affect the town budget,” she said.

Grants awarded to the village to renovate the former Camillus Cutlery, on Genesee Street, for highway improvements and for community development projects would roll over to the town, she said.

The town is looking into whether the village has any debt, where the village’s sales tax revenue would go and other details, Coogan said.

Antonacci said the study gave different scenarios and cost-savings estimates for taxpayers.

Antonacci said his study did not include a tax credit that helps pay for local government consolidation. The town of Camillus would receive $1 million annually through the state Citizen Empowerment Tax Credit as a result of the merger, Glazier said. State officials said the payment is an annual payment as long as the state Legislature puts aside the money for the program.

The town could use up to $300,000, or 30 percent of the tax credit, to help offset any costs it incurs from the merger, Glazier. The remainder — at least 70 percent — must be used to offset property taxes, he said.

By adding the tax credit, a village resident with a house assessed at $100,000 would save at least $150 annually, Glazier said.

Town residents would see their taxes decrease because of the tax credit, he said. The exact savings for town residents was not immediately available.

Anne Clancy, a member of the Camillus village board, said several factors make it difficult for the village to provide the same level of services: the gradual loss of county sales tax revenue; a drop in state aid; the new property tax cap; and the current budget, which didn’t raise taxes enough to cover this year’s expenses.

If you go

What: Camillus Village Board will discuss a petition and the Onondaga County comptroller’s dissolution study for the village.

When: 6:30 p.m. July 28.

Where: Camillus Senior Center, First Street, Camillus.

Clancy, who has been helping circulate the petition in Camillus, said the village board needs direction from its constituents.

If the village remains, Clancy said, residents would see fewer road repairs; possibly new fees for garbage pickups; and possibly an end to all village-sponsored activities, such as a sidewalk sale and a Christmas celebration.

Not everyone in the village is ready for a merger.

Belle Brown, a former Camillus village trustee and lifetime member of the Camillus Fire Department, said she does not want to see the village dissolve. Brown, 73, said she grew up and raised her 19 children and 31 foster children on the same street where she lives today.

“We’ve got a good village down here,” said Brown, of South Street. “It’s wrong to just abolish the village.”
Contact Catie O’Toole at cotoole@syracuse.com or 470-2134.